The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Tim Wu, Author; Policy Advocate; Professor, Columbia University

Wu warns that each new major medium, from the telephone to cable TV, arrived on a wave of idealistic optimism only to ultimately become the object of industrial consolidation. Every free and open technology was in time centralized and closed, a huge corporate power taking control of the “master switch,” says Wu.  As a similar struggle looms over the Internet today, the stakes have never been higher.

MLF: Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
Cost: $8 members, $20 non-members
Buy the Book: Purchase Tim Wu's The Master Switch from The Commonwealth Club's online bookstore.
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress and Eric Shih